


SLOWLY

by Hitomi_G



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Flirting, Captain Akaashi Keiji, Captain Ennoshita Chikara, Eventual Romance, Friendship, Kissing, M/M, Other, Secret Relationship, Tsukki and the others are now second years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:41:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26673097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hitomi_G/pseuds/Hitomi_G
Summary: Tsukishima isn't good at expressing his feelings, he never was. But the fact that he has been crushing hard on Fukurodani's setter since they met is something he finds difficult to ignore. His journey to his confession starts with lots of texts and failed attempts at flirting until the time for the summer training camp in his second year arrives, giving him a chance to grow closer to the now new captain of the team. What is he going to do?
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	1. Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukishima starts to act differently before the training camp and his fellow teammates don't fail to notice this. Yamaguchi gets hurt, but there's someone trying to make him feel better.

**SLOWLY**

**_Chapter 1: Secret_ **

“Sorry, I already have someone I like.”

Yamaguchi almost spits his water when he heard his best friend saying those words. It was not an unusual happening that girls confessed to Tsukishima, but normally he would simply refuse without giving any explanation, and if one was demanded he simply sighed, changed his fed-up expression into an annoyed one, and say: “Why do I need one?”

He really wanted to ask what led him to say that, but he knew he would be definitely be told to shut up and drop the issue. Maybe he was just feeling in high spirits that day? Finals had just finished, and Tsukishima had made it through them with excellent notes. But no, he wasn’t one to care about his grades at all, he was just a good student. Perhaps he just didn’t feel like being to direct with Sakaki because they knew each other from before? They were as close as Tsukishima could be with other people during elementary school, Yamaguchi even remembered going to her house to play.

“Why are you walking so slowly?” Tsukishima stopped his trail of thoughts with this question and Yamaguchi realized he was already several steps ahead of him. He dashed the distance to catch up and apologized.

“Sorry, I was just lost in thought”

“Hm, about what?”

“Nothing in particular”

Tsukishima stared at him for a moment but didn’t push the matter any further. Instead, he asked him if he was feeling better. Yamaguchi had mentioned having a mild headache in the morning while they walked together to school. After telling him he was okay, they resumed their way.

The sound of balls hitting the floor and the walls could be heard clearly from outside of Karasuno’s gym, where the rest of the team was already training and warming up. Taking a deep breath, Yamaguchi followed Tsukishima inside dreading the “why are you late” questions knowing that Tsukishima wouldn’t want the rest of the team to meddle into his business and therefore Hinata was sure to make on-point comments that would lead them both to start a fight.

“Hey, it’s rare for you two to be late?” Ukai observed them put their things aside with arms crossed over his chest. “Did anything happen?” Yamaguchi hurried to answer.

“No coach, we just got distracted by… something”

Ukai raised his brow.

“A classmate stopped us on our way here. Sorry” finished Tsukishima.

“Ah, no, don’t worry, I’m not angry, it’s just unusual so I wanted to make sure everything was fine.”

When they joined the rest of the team to practice their receives after warming up, they went to different sides of the net. Tsukishima was asked to spike for the team and Yamaguchi met the rest of his teammates at the opposite side of the court.

Hinata approached him curiously and took a long look at him from head to toe, fidgeting. Yamaguchi started to feel anxious from being observed like that as if he had grown antlers or a tail overnight and he hadn’t noticed.

He decided to ignore him and waited for his turn to receive. He managed to catch the ball on time, but it had been sent to the wall on his left and one of the new first years had had to retrieve it. He went back to form. Hinata went right after him but when he returned, he kept staring at him. Unable to hold it any longer he asked what he was looking at.

“I don’t know… Hickeys?”

Yamaguchi’s face turned red and he pulled Hinata away from the others.

“How do you know?”

“Eh? I was just kidding… Don’t tell me you two actually…”

“What? No! Hinata, don’t ever joke around like that anymore, especially not with Tsukki”

Hinata didn’t quite understand why Yamaguchi had gotten so upset, especially because he was the most level-headed out of the second years in the team. He apologized.

“Just, don’t do it again. Why were you looking at me then? For real this time.”

“Heh, well, Kageyama and I were talking, and we agreed that Tsukishima has been acting weird lately. Kageyama says he is being less annoying and that he hasn’t been complaining about his sets like he usually does. He feels that he has been observing him.”

“So? Isn’t that something good?”

“And he hasn’t been picking on me as often as before…”

“Again, isn’t that a good thing?”

“No! I mean, yes, it is! But it’s… weird. I thought you might know if something happened to him, but I didn’t know how to ask. Has he been acting weird around you too?”

Yamaguchi had to admit that he had. Not in a strange or obvious way for the others to notice, but he had certainly been a little bit distracted the last couple of weeks. Hinata was worrying about Tsukishima, but he wasn’t sure if he should tell him. His turn to receive had arrived again, so he told Hinata to wait as he went to court to practice. He took the opportunity to observe if Tsukishima was acting differently in court. He hadn’t noticed, but it was true that he and Kageyama hadn’t had any unfriendly interaction for a while. After his turn was over, he went back and waited for Hinata to pass.

“I mean, not in an unusual way. I guess he’s been distracted, but nothing else.” He lied “I don’t think there’s anything to worry”

Captain Ennoshita asked them politely to pay more attention to practice, so they stopped talking. When it was Yamaguchi’s turn to receive again, he walked away from Hinata and took his stand ready to hit back whatever spike Tsukishima directed at him. It turned out to be a cross-spike, and Yamaguchi had to react in a matter of seconds to stretch his legs and arrive on time to where the ball was about to touch the gym floor. He managed to extend his arm on time to not let the ball drop, but he also felt a muscle being pulled in his leg. The ball flew to the other side of the net, and he rolled on the floor.

He heard his teammates and teacher’s worried gasps as he tried to stand up. In a moment Yachi was next to him offering him a towel and his bottle of water while Ukai and Takeda checked his leg. Kinoshita took him to the infirmary a few minutes later.

*

After Yamaguchi’s accident during practice, the team had got together to strategize and to talk about the upcoming training camp next week. Tsukishima planned to leave with Yamaguchi as he always did, but Kinoshita told him that his father had come to pick him up after the school nurse checked his leg.

“She said he’ll be ok, don’t worry”

He went to the school dressers with Hinata, Kageyama, and some first years to change his clothes and left right afterward, refusing their invitation to wait for Ukai and follow him to Sakanoshita store to get some meat buns.

He plugged his headphones to his cellphone and started to play music to make the night walk less dull. He also decided to send a message to Yamaguchi to ask how he was doing. When he opened the messaging app, he noticed he had a few messages from his brother and his mom. There was also the unread message he had purposely ignored from that morning showing the annoying red number and distracting Tsukishima from his original goal.

He sent a quick text to Yamaguchi and read the ones from his family. Nothing important. He replied and decided to leave the unread message there for after he arrived home and took a shower.

The message was postponed until after dinner. Yamaguchi had texted him he was alright, but he would need to rest from practice for around a week or two in order to recover from the leg contracture.

_> > It’s a shame I won’t be able to play during the training camp, though._

_Hinata told you already? <<_

_> > No, Yacchan did. She says she wants to come tomorrow to bring me her notes._

_Is it that bad? <<_

_> > Not really, but the nurse said it was better for me to skip school tomorrow just in case._

_Well, good luck with Yachi tomorrow then. I bet you don’t want me interfering your alone time together. <<_

The next text that Yamaguchi sent was a complete paragraph of excited, happy, and embarrassed emojis. Tsukishima simply sent a thumbs-up emoji back and with that, he concluded the conversation. Now, he had no option than to check that other text message.

_Thursday, Sep 27 [16:48]_

_> > Happy birthday_

_Thanks <<_

_Hope to see you soon <<_

_Monday, Oct 15 [07:03]_

_> > Hey, I heard you guys are coming to Tokyo next week_

Tsukishima wondered what to reply to that. It was already nine at night, was there even a point to reply anymore? As he was trying to decide what to do, he noticed the text sender status changed to “online”.

_Yeah, they told us the official date today, but we already knew <<_

_> > Same here. The team is excited_

_Are you? <<_

_> > You know me_

Did he? Tsukishima couldn’t tell. Through the year of texting they had grown closer, and Tsukishima thought for a moment that it would be nice for it to be true. _“I want to know more”_ is what he wanted to say, but instead he replied with a winking face emoji and stopped the conversation at that.

That had been the routine for the las couple of months. At first, Tsukishima was positive that his intentions had been straightforward when flirting, but so far, he hadn’t received any type of sign that he was being corresponded. Still, the fact that they kept texting and knowing about each other had been enough for Tsukishima’s crush to develop into something a little bit deeper. Maybe not love, but he definitely had come to like him more.

“Maybe I’m doing it wrong… I don’t know how to flirt” he whispered to his stuffed dinosaur toy before turning off his mobile phone and going to sleep.

The next morning, Tsukishima woke up after dreaming of him and he decided to text him first this time.

_I dreamed about you. It was a nice dream. <<_

_Have a nice day <<_

He didn’t receive any reply.

*

Things were noisy as usual in the training camp, mostly due to Tanaka, Nishinoya, and Lev. This year the training camp was taking place in Nekoma High and they had been the first ones to arrive followed soon after by the Shinzen High team. Ubugawa High and Fukurodani Academy players arrived not long after that. When the coaches and managers asked everyone to sit down and welcomed everyone Tsukishima noticed how Kageyama and Hinata were anxious to start playing.

“The first half of the day is only to welcome everyone. We won’t start the actual camp until afternoon, probably. But I guess you wouldn’t know, you had to stay back last year.”

As expected, the two boys got riled up by Tsukishima’s words and raised their voices, earning a passive-aggressive scold by Professor Takeda in front of everyone. After the introductions were made and the first years got a feeling of what was going on, each team was invited to join breakfast.

In the end, Yamaguchi had been given permission to attend the training camp as an observer. He had been spending a lot of time with Yachi since his lesion and he decided to help her and the other managers whenever he wasn’t actively watching the others train, which left Tsukishima with not many options available during breakfast. He scanned the place looking for somewhere he would feel comfortable sitting but decided to just sit with Kinoshita and Narita. He didn’t feel like socializing much that day.

“Hey, Yamaguchi is ditching you again, eh?” said Narita. Tsukishima shrugged and started to dig into his plate of food.

“Man, I’m jealous. I wish I had a girlfriend!” Kinoshita exclaimed.

“Nah, man, stay single, I know what I’m telling you”

“Someone’s still salty after being dumped, huh?”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Narita-senpai” Tsukishima didn’t really want to interact with his seniors, but it would be weird to just stay quiet. Besides, he actually liked them. It was nice to spend time with people who didn’t talk about volleyball all the time. The girls' talk wasn’t something he enjoyed either, but at the moment he welcomed the distraction, or else he would have kept looking around for a pair of deep green eyes.

“Nah, don’t sweat it. How about you, Tsukishima? I’ve heard rumors about you from the girls in my class. You are quite popular even among your upper classmates. Have you broken any hearts recently?”

“You make him sound like a Casanova, Kazuhito, which I’m pretty sure he isn’t.”

“I turned down a girl the other day if that’s what you want to know.”

Both of his seniors raised their voices in amazement and started asking questions. Right then Ennoshita was passing by with the captains of the other teams.

“Why did you turn her down? Do you like someone else already?”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

Nobody seemed to notice how his sight was directed towards the new Fukurodani captain when pronouncing those words, much less how said captain had been staring at Tsukishima knowingly while passing by before turning back to look at the other captains when Tsukishima said them.


	2. Juvenile

**_SLOWLY_ **

**Chapter 2: Juvenile**

The thing about being young and experimenting the thrill of love for the first time was that it was usually accompanied by a lot of awkward moments, self-embarrassment, inability to act like you normally would, and a complete lack of keeping your hormones and body from reacting at the most ridiculous things.

Tsukishima took, for instance, the moment in which Akaashi was setting for him during extra practice the second night of the training camp. The same group as the previous year had been gathered by Hinata in one of the courts to have practice matches against each other. With the lack of the rambunctious ex captains of Nekoma and Fukurodani the whole thing didn’t feel the same but leave that to Lev to compensate. He and the fact that Kageyama had refused to miss practice with Akaashi this year made it a similar experience. To complete the group of six people Lev had taken Shibayama with him. Being the only libero with experience in Nekoma that year his anxiety was showing, but he was a good addition to the weird team they had formed.

In the end, Tsukishima shared his side of the court with Akaashi and Hinata, while Kageyama was the leader of the other with Lev and Shibayama by his side.

And Tsukishima might have been used to keeping a stoic expression while focusing on the game, and he might have ignored the rush of adrenaline that his blood started to pump when Akaashi casually brushed his hand with the tip of his fingers while he passed, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that the sensation between his legs was something he wouldn’t be able to control or hide once it reached a certain point, so when he jumped to block Lev and accidentally crashed his body with Hinata’s and then he fell backward and his back landed on Akaashi’s chest it had been too much. In a very uncharacteristic and un-Tsukishima moment, he quickly stood up, stumbled to grab his things, and ran out of the gym not paying attention to where he was going.

He ended up hiding behind the main gym, where he could hear the voice of the coaches discussing practice schedules and routines for the next few days. His heart was still beating fast and he felt that he had somehow lost all the blood in his body, but at least there was no one there to see him in the darkness of the night.

Awareness was a scary thing. Before, when he thought that his attraction to Akaashi was pure admiration he hadn’t had any problem talking to him even if he had been shy about it. But now that he couldn’t deny the fact that there was so much more hidden behind that admiration, he couldn’t suppress the feeling that he needed to avoid him at all costs. He had tried to act mature in his text messages and he had done everything he could to impress him the past few days, but not a single word had been crossed between them that didn’t involve volleyball or other club members and the mere thought of apologizing to him – which would have been the normal thing to do in that situation instead of running away – seemed like danger, as if just with that Akaashi would have seen through him, and that perceived but unreal vulnerability was making Tsukishima lose his mind.

While he was thinking about excuses for why he had acted that way – because he was sure that Kageyama and Hinata wouldn’t just let it be without questioning him as if he had just committed murder – he noticed a light coming from his open training bag. He wondered for a moment if he should pick up the phone because it was probably either Hinata about trying to figure out what had happened or Yamaguchi who had heard about it from Hinata. At least he had to see which one it was in order to decide if he should or shouldn’t take the call. In a surprising turn of events, it was neither of them.

Akaashi’s name was glimmering on his screen while the cellphone vibrated, and the green and red circles were almost begging Tsukishima to be pressed. The red one seemed tempting, but the wonder of how the conversation would unfold once he touched the green one excited him, so he opted for that one and regrated instantly when he heard the other’s voice on the other side of the line.

“Tsukishima-kun, are you alright?”

“I’m sorry, yes. I’m fine”

“Where are you? Did you go back with the rest of your team?”

“No I… I am behind the main gym”

“Don’t move, I’ll be there in a moment”

And he obeyed. The waiting was torture though, even if it only took around three minutes for Akaashi to arrive, first, because he didn’t what to say, second because he realized they would be alone for the first time in all the time they had known each other, and third, because it was actually starting to be cold around that time of autumn and even though his jersey was covering his upper body, his long legs didn’t have the same luck.

“There you are”

“Hello Akaashi-san”

Akaashi walked close to him and sat down on the grass, patting the spot next to him to invite Tsukishima to do the same. Once they both were sitting closely both refused to say anything for the next few minutes.

“Are you hurt?”

“No,” said Akaashi, the slightest smile on his face “are you?”

“Just my pride”

Akaashi chuckled and extended his legs in front of him. At the same time, he pushed his head back and held his weight with his arms on each side while he observed the night sky.

“Tsukishima-kun, I’ve been meaning to ask before, but I didn’t want to do it over a text, and honestly even though I wanted to wait until the last day of the training camp just to avoid us acting strange around each other during the week I think it’s too late for that. We are already acting strange, everyone will notice at some point and to tell the truth, the thought is making me feel anxious too”

“What thought?”

“Have you been trying to flirt with me, Tsukishima-kun?” Tsukishima kept quiet and his lips started to tremble open, but still, no sound came from between them. “I’m sorry if I got the wrong impression and if I’m making you feel uncomfortable right now, but I really needed to make sure”.

“I…”

“Because, just so you know, it would be a pleasure if you kept doing it. It’s working.”

All the blood that Tsukishima had thought disappeared from his body just minutes before that rushed back to his face and flushed it a bright shade of red. He was paralyzed. He needed to pinch the back of his hand to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming and then he had to touch his own face just to make sure that the temperature he was feeling was indeed emanating from his own body. His chest was barely able to contain the excitement and he had never felt his heartbeat so strong and loud in his entire life. But there he was, Tsukishima Kei, at 16 years old, being told by the senior he liked that he was liked back.

“Is it?” was everything he could say before hiding his head between his knees and taking a deep breath to finish assimilating the new development in his young life.

“Mhm” Tsukishima risked a peek at Akaashi and noticed a beautiful hint of pink on his cheeks while he smiled at his direction “You never noticed?”

“I wished” Tsukishima breathed “but I never thought it possible”

“Yet, here we are”

“Yeah”

“Can you look at me, Tsukishima-kun?”

He did. Slowly, he lifted his head and turned his body towards Akaashi. He crossed his legs the best he could, considering his height, and finally opened his eyes to stare at the beautiful pair of blue orbs on the senior’s face.

“What do we, er, do now?”

“I was hoping, if you let me, to kiss you”

Tsukishima simply nodded before Akaashi’s lips were on his, pressing their soft touch in a very delicate and carefully controlled way. And even though Tsukishima’s tongue was aching to pull them apart and to feel more, he let himself be led by Akaashi, smoothly, slowly, sweetly and tenderly, as if Tsukishima was something fragile who could break if any more pressure was put against him.

When they broke the kiss their faces lingered together only an inch apart and their catching breaths brushed the other’s lips attracting them to each other once more.

This time, the kiss was heated and desperate, as if the previous one had been only a mere test to make sure they could endure the strength of the one following. Tsukishima noticed that at some point his hands had flown to rest on Akaashi’s shoulders and that his back was being pressed against the wall of the gym while Akaashi straddled him.

_“Cof, cof!”_

The noise startled them and they instinctively got away from each other. Akaashi stood up and looked around trying to figure out if someone might have seen them. The coughing had sounded very close but in the dark it was very unlikely that that they had been seen. He walked back to Tsukishima, who was sitting there, contemplating the sky as his thumb caressed his lips absentmindedly. He came back to reality when Akaashi offered him a hand and helped him stand up. They looked at each other and they didn’t care if they were just about to be caught or if whoever it had been was still around, they laughed at what had happened. When they had both calmed down, Akaashi took a strand of hair and placed it behind his ear before walking a step back.

“We should take you back to your team, they must be worried”

“Yeah… Oh, shit! What am I going to tell them? The stupid duo will tease me non-stop after what happened at the gym”

“Don’t worry about Hinata-kun and Kageyama-kun. They didn’t make fun of you, Hinata-kun seemed terrified, actually. He probably thought you stormed off furious with him for making you fall. Kageyama-kun gave him a good dose of scolding telling him to be more careful”

“Heh, sounds like them”

“Yeah. Let’s get back”

Tsukishima didn’t expect Akaashi to actually walk him to the building where the Karasuno team was staying, but he did. When they arrived Akaashi ruffled his hair and waved good-bye, and even if Tsukishima had hoped for another kiss he felt satisfied with the way in which Akaashi looked at him before leaving.

And even though he found it hard to sleep that night because of what had happened, there was another thing keeping him awake; the memory of a lingering smell of tobacco when he and Akaashi left their hideout behind the gym.


	3. Chapter 3

**_SLOWLY_ **

**_Chapter 3_ **

Training camp finished in two days.

Yet, Tsukishima and Akaashi were spending the little time they had together and enjoying the thrill of the beginning of their relationship.

They were trying to enjoy as much time they could together with the full knowledge that as soon as training camp was over the relationship would become long distance. They weren’t afraid of it, per se, but they dreaded the awareness of how much they would miss each other then. And they weren’t sure when they would be able to see each other again either. They avoided speaking about it. Tsukishima especially thought about how much the distance would affect them. Maybe not yet, maybe not while they were both in High School. But what about when Akaashi graduated and went to university?

“Maybe we won’t have as much time physically together as we might have wanted to, but we still have got time to know each other better in the future” Akaashi had said one night after practice. They had volunteered to stay after the extra practice in the third gym to clean every night just to spend some time together. Everyone else was overjoyed to let them without a question, nobody liked to stay and do chores. Akaashi and Tsukishima were responsible, so it also seemed like a normal thing for them to do.

And every night they would take their time inside of the storage room, or behind the gym secretly holding hands and getting to know each other. Talking about everything and about nothing. Sharing smiles and soft kisses and a snack stolen from dinner.

They also discovered that one of the reasons why the coaches hadn’t found out was because of Ukai.

Since the incident the day when they confessed, they had been aware that whoever had heard them had been following and guarding them every other night. They knew it was him because of the smell of tobacco that was always lingering in the air whenever they left, and because of the way in which he started to avoid Tsukishima’s gaze whenever he could, and because of the way he had intentionally changed the rotation of their matches against Fukurodani as if he had wanted to avoid direct confrontation between them. Every time Tsukishima moved to the front line, coach Ukai would switch him with Hinata or Narita and Akaashi would smile knowingly from the other side of the net before Tsukishima left the court.

“What if long-distance doesn’t work?” Tsukishima asked one night. Not afraid, but sincerely, maturely, seriously, while they were saying their private good-byes before the next day when they would be once again separated by the distance.

“At least we won’t regret not trying. And, who says we won’t be able to give it another chance if our paths cross again in the future?”

The next day Tsukishima asked Ukai to keep him in the court for the complete match against Fukurodani. Ukai, realizing that he had been caught on to what he had been doing and that both kids were separating in just a few hours, agreed.

“Never thought I’d have to tell _you_ this, but focus on the _ball_ , please, not in… any other kind of distraction”

If Tsukishima had known better then, he would have caught the nostalgic and fatherly tone that Ukai had used to phrase the warning. “I will” he answered.

The secrecy, the stolen glances across courts, the occasional touches and smiles, the hiding in plain sight from the others, the first kisses, the first conversations, the burning desire for intimacy and privacy proper of their age. Those two weeks, both teenagers dove full speed into what would become a long-lasting relationship.

They still didn’t know that then, but they got a lifetime to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm an Ukai simp, I just HAD TO involve him in the story. Also I think he would be more than supportive of his crow children. (I'm writing a story about him in case you're interested to read it cough cough it's called Koi no Yokan, give it a try if you want).
> 
> This chapter was planned short from the beginning because I wanted to wrap up in a simple but happy tone. Also because I'm bad at writing endings. I originally planned to post on Akaashi's birthday but adult life responsibilities come first, I guess.
> 
> Thanks to all of you who took the time to read and to leave kudos and comments!!


End file.
